A Wisconsin woman who ordered a book about the history of Israel from Amazon was shocked to open it this week and find that it was defaced with stickers that said “Free Palastine.”
When Madison mom Shira Goldman cracked open “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” she noticed the stickers, which included a fake barcode and the incorrect spelling of Palestine.
“It was very disturbing and I felt violated,” Goldman told The Post.
Goldman, who is Jewish, feared that she was targeted for her faith.
She shared the unsettling discovery with those close to her and then took to Facebook to ask for advice.
Word spread through different Jewish moms groups, including Members of the Tribe Parenting and Mothers Against College Antisemitism — which has exploded to nearly 50,000 members since its Oct. 26 creation.
In addition to speaking out against antisemitism, many members of these online communities share book recommendations to help make sense of the war in the Middle East following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
One of those books is often Tishby’s. The Israeli actress and activist’s guide was published in 2021 but landed on the New York Times best-seller list last month.
Within hours of Goldman posting about her experience, a fellow member who works for Amazon was able to get to the bottom of who defaced her book, and the person was subsequently fired.
She then had a new book sent to Goldman’s house that exact same day.
Apparently, it was the last copy of the book at a warehouse hours from Goldman’s home and an employee delivered it personally to her.
“A community came together to help each other out,” Goldman said.
Author Tishby even got wind of the incident and asked on X if this had happened to anyone else. “This is unacceptable. I’m in contact with [Amazon Books] and they’re making sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“A community came together to help each other out,” Goldman said.
Though Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the attacks on Israel “shocking and painful to watch” on X, some employees have pushed for more public support of Palestine, the Washington Post reported last month.
The company has received backlash for not removing pro-Palestinian merch bearing the controversial phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” according to reports.
“We take this very seriously and apologize to the impacted customer and author,” a spokesperson for Amazon told the Post.
“We immediately launched an investigation into the defaced book, identified the person responsible, and that person no longer works at Amazon.” The company did not name the saboteur.
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